Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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One thin which we had a good deal of trouble in over- coming was the military-academy side of Dawson ' s character, which was only finally eradicated after repeated efforts. His room (in which one recalls the peace pipe that some of us once tried to smoke, and the Zulu weapon with a long name that had killed a man) was frequently put in most admir ' d disorder, or was made the arena in which our rival wrestlers held their con- tests. And now a multitude of minor thoughts crowd into my mind and clamor for expression. Fire crackers reverberating through the halls, or exploding in dangerous proximity to a sainted head; lamp chimneys falling with a crash upon the floor; midnight horrors of many kinds ; warm afternoons spent in lazi- ness at the Bummers ' Retreat; weary pilgrimages for meteoro- logical purposes to the Observatory or Tower; victorious coasts on our unrivaled sled, and clandes tine trips to the little tavern blue. And thus, with much fun and little study, we passed on to the end of our Freshman year, and great was our happiness when we received the spoon and became Sophomores. Sophomore Ye.vr. It is not often that a college student feels so perfectly satisfied with himself and the world as he does when entering upon his second year. The recollection of the loneliness and humility of his former appearance only serve to make his second advent more enjoyable, and coupled with this is the great pleasure of meeting his friends again. When our honored class came to college the second time, it was found to have changed somewhat in the interval. Howell the Sleepy, Mary the Rapid, Johnson the Gaily, Binns the Loafer, and Brooks the Violinist, had all left for other and more congenial spheres ; and in their place we received — Morris the Rosy, and Morris ' Guardian, Gummere the 2 17

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gloves brought out a variety of skilled pugilists; — heavy-weights, like Hilles and Johnson, who fought for knockouts, and feather- weights, like Patterson and Sharp, who sparred only for points. In foot-ball, we made ourselves felt at once, and had three men on the college team when the latter beat Lehigh. Though beaten by Swarthmore and University, we defeated the Germantown Academy in Wright good style, and even that relic of barbarism, the Class of ' 85, found in us no mean opponents, though we can- not say the same for them. But there is one word that, to the mind of every ' 88 man, brings up a host of happy memories. At the mere mention of Spotsy, we all begin to smile. Who can describe those lively recitations? Who can record the number of zeros given to the boys on the back bench ? Or who can recall the number of times that Johnson was requested to Leave ! ! or that Hilles took a bench off, or that Bones lost the place, or that Hartshorne laughed? Verily the world could not contain the books that should be written ! Ah, those were merry times in there, and though the old gentleman thundered away at us, call- ing us Little Boys, No Gentlemen and Personal Enemies, and sliced our marks down all the time, we were quite fond of him, after all. This affection was considerably increased by the fact that the work of preparation was not very difficult, as the improvements which our Revised Versions (Smart and Bohn) had made in the text, made translation quite rapid. Two honor- able members, however, insisted upon worrying the dictionary, and a third would have us believe he did so at home, but we noticed that when he arrived at college he generally liked to take a little ride with the members of the T. C. The latter organi- zation was also a whist-playing and gastronomical club, and its members frequently regaled themselves with very nice sarsaparilla and sausages fried a la floor. 16

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Bearded, and Jim the Indignant; Fweddy, the Witty; Lewis, the-man-with-a-club, and Esrey — the — well, words can ' t describe him. The growing freshness of ' 89 first attracted our attention, and it was decided that something must be done to counteract the undesirable effect of the prohibition of tossing. Accordingly, a committee was appointed, and having exacted a pledge from Sharp that he would not laugh, sent the sergeant-at-arms to bring in the offenders ; Charles, putting on his most savage look, did the talking, and it was a sight for gods and men to see those Fresh- men wilt and tremble under his rhetorical thunders. The cane-rush was somewhat of a surprise to us, as the Freshmen had intimated that they would not make the attempt. However, we pitched into them immediately, and twenty minutes ' agony ensued. Orbison especially fought very well, not being at all embarrassed by the removal of his clothing, and Ed. Binns showed up as a dark horse, being on the cane all the time, though dressed in ordinary clothes, and wearing a plug hat, which he kept on till the end. At the end we had five men on the cane, and so the victory was awarded to us. The struggle was a severe one, and Sharp was pretty well exhausted, but a little Grenet cleaning solution braced him up. Mr. Dawson, how- ever, was more seriously injured, having suffered a severe contu- sion of the chest, occasioned, we believe, by squeezing Geary ' s head. Our foot-ball team this year was an excellent one, and we defeated the University and Swarthmore Sophomores in great style, the latter game being particularly brilliant. The class match with ' 87 was never finished, as in the early part of the game Sharp had his nose broken in some mysterious way. His discourse that night, while under the influence of liquor (Ether Sulphuric), will never be forgotten by those who were with him. Besides im- 18